Timothy Zahn - Survivor's Quest

"And the Geroons," Luke said. "I was talking to them when the explosion went off, and I left my datapad behind in their shuttle."

"Sorry, but that's a dead end, too," Fel spoke up, pointing to another rack above the console. "Whoever took the data cards also helped himself to a datapad." He brightened suddenly. "Which means it's not Jinzler or the Geroons," he said. "Like you said, they wouldn't need to take one."

"Unless they deliberately took it to throw us off the trail," Luke pointed out gently.

Fel's face dropped. "Oh. Right." He muttered something under his breath. "Sorry. This sort of thing is a little outside my area of expertise."

"Ours, too," Luke assured him. "Don't worry, we'll figure it out. If necessary, we can always ask Formbi to search the ship."

"What do you mean, if necessary?" Fel asked, frowning. "Don't we want him to do that anyway?"

Luke shrugged. "There are any number of places aboard a ship like this where you can hide something as small as four data cards," he pointed out. "Or the thief could easily have copied them into a different system—a droid, even—and then gotten rid of the originals."

"The Chiss don't have droids," Fel said. "But I see your point."

"On the other hand," Luke went on, "if we don't make a fuss, the thief won't know whether or not we've even missed them. That might give us a whole different set of advantages."

"Maybe," Fel said, not sounding entirely convinced.

"Trust me," Luke assured him. "Knowledge of any sort is power, as Talon Karrde always says."

"As Grand Admiral Thrawn usually proved," Fel rejoined.

"Don't remind us," Luke said ruefully. "Do you know if this ship carries any hypercapable transports or shuttles?"

"I believe this class usually carries one," Fel said, forehead wrinkling in concentration. "The commander's glider, it's called, though on a diplomatic ship like this it would probably be assigned to Formbi instead of Captain Talshib. Why?"

"You might still be right about someone trying to delay us and get a head start," Luke explained. "Especially now that he's got an operational manual in hand. If so, he'd need a way to get there once he'd disabled the ship. With your transport, ours, and Formbi's, that means he's got at least three to choose from."

"Plus the Geroons' shuttle and whatever Jinzler used," Mara put in.

"You can forget the Geroons' shuttle," Luke said, shaking his head. "I wouldn't trust it to fly to the far side of the Chaf Envoy."

"That bad, is it?" Mara asked.

"It makes my old T-sixteen look good by comparison," Luke said wryly. "Anyway, I don't think it has a hyperdrive."

"Okay, so that leaves Jinzler's ship," Mara concluded. "Fel, do you know what he's got?"

"Actually, I don't think he has a ship," Fel said. "I didn't see him arrive—he got here before we did—but I believe Formbi mentioned he'd gotten a ride from someone."

"He got a ride?" Luke asked incredulously. "Out here?"

Fel shrugged. "All I know is what Formbi said. Maybe he contacted Nirauan and Admiral Parck arranged something."

"Maybe," Mara said. Personally, she didn't believe that for a minute, but there was no point arguing about it. "So what's our next move?"

"Our next move is to go back to our quarters," Luke said firmly. "I don't know about you, but I've got a few small burns that need to be attended to."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Fel said, getting up quickly from his chair and starting toward one of the medpacs fastened to the wall beside the emergency oxygen tanks. "I didn't even think about—"

"No, no, that's all right," Luke hastened to assure him. "We don't need medical help. We'll be able to fix ourselves up just fine overnight with a Jedi healing trance."

"Oh." Fel stopped short, and Mara could sense his embarrassment. "I'm sorry. I guess I don't know as much about Jedi as I thought I did."

"Have you ever even met one before?" Mara asked.

"Well, no," Fel admitted. "But I have read up on them. I mean, on you. I mean—"

"We know what you mean," Luke said, smiling slightly. "Don't worry about it." He stood up. "Mara?"

"We'll see you tomorrow, Commander," Mara said, getting to her feet.

"All right," Fel said. "I'll see you out."

"Don't bother," Luke said. "We can find the way. You'd better go see to your men."

"Maybe discuss some new security arrangements," Mara added.

Fel made a face. "Point taken. Good night."

The stormtroopers had vanished from the ready room as Luke and Mara passed through, their armor hung neatly on the racks lining the walls. "That last comment was a little unfair, you know," Luke commented as they walked down the corridor toward their quarters. "I'm sure he did have some security set up."

"That's why I said they needed a new set of arrangements," Mara countered. "The old ones obviously weren't good enough."

"Mm," Luke said. "Maybe. Maybe not."

Mara looked sideways at him. "You have a thought?"

He shrugged, glancing casually behind them. "I don't know if it occurred to you, but we only have Fel's word that there were any data cards here in the first place."

"Or that he really did talk to Jinzler about them before dinner," Mara agreed. "He could just be venting waste gases here, trying to get us to look suspiciously at everyone except him. You think we ought to pay a little visit to Jinzler before we lock down for the night?"

Luke shook his head. "Not worth it. We definitely need to talk with him sometime before we get to Outbound Flight, but I don't want to do it with these burns distracting us. Besides, even if Fel did talk to him about Outbound Flight, it doesn't prove anything. By Fel's own admission he was trying to see what Jinzler knew about the mission. If Jinzler didn't have anything, but said he wanted to see Fel's records—"

"Records Fel didn't have," Mara murmured.

"Right—records he didn't have," Luke said, "then Fel would still have to fake a robbery. It'd be easier to fake it to us than wait until Jinzler came by."

"Except that we might catch him at it," Mara pointed out.

"You're forgetting the sequence of the conversation," Luke reminded her. "It wasn't until we told him we couldn't always catch people in lies that he even mentioned he had the data cards."

Mara played back the memory. Blasted if he wasn't right. "You're really making me look bad tonight," she growled. "I thought I was the one who was supposed to have had the investigative training."

"It's all the time I've spent hanging around Corran Horn," Luke said dryly. "Some of it rubs off on a person. Besides, you've got other things on your mind."

Mara felt her muscles stiffen. "What do you mean?" she asked cautiously.

He shrugged, too casually. "I was hoping you'd tell me," he said. "All I know is that there's something still churning around behind those beautiful green eyes of yours."

Mara snorted under her breath. "So it's flattery now, is it? That's a sure sign you've run out of logical arguments and persuasive skill."

"Or else it's a sign of my sincerity and commitment to your continued happiness as my wife and companion," Luke countered.

"Ooh—I like that," Mara said approvingly. "Commitment to my continued happiness. Make sure you use that one again sometime."

"I'll make a note," Luke promised. His smile faded into seriousness. "You know that I'm always ready to listen."

She caught his hand, squeezed it. "I know," she assured him. "And it's no big deal—really it isn't. I just have to do some thinking on my own before I can talk about it, that's all."

"Okay," Luke said, and she could feel his concern fading a little. But only a little. "Oh, and there's one more factor here we shouldn't forget. Fel's stormtrooper squad isn't exactly homogeneous."

Mara frowned. "Are you talking about that alien, Su-mil?"